Black & White Painting — The Old Masters Method

Before the Old Masters added color to their paintings, they built them in black and white first — a technique called grisaille. This underpainting established all the values, all the light and shadow, all the three-dimensional form before a single color was introduced.

Working in acrylic with just three colors — white, black, and light ochre — Igor Naskalov guides you through this powerful technique. Students consistently find it liberating rather than limiting. The result is a striking, museum-quality piece in classic monochrome.

What you’ll learn

• What grisaille is and why the Old Masters used it
• Mixing and controlling a limited three-color palette
• Building form through value: light, mid-tone, and shadow
• Brush technique for smooth blending in acrylic

What to bring

• Acrylic paint — titanium white, mars black, and light ochre only
• Canvas board or primed cardboard A3/A4
• Soft synthetic brushes #0–8
• Disposable palette or white plate

Class size: 8–12 students (minimum 5 to run) · Ages: 12+ · Languages: English · Russian · Italian

Who is Igor Naskalov?

Igor Naskalov is a classically trained Russian painter and one of the foremost instructors of Old Masters techniques working today. He currently serves as Chairman of Painting at the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow – the same institution that has trained generations of Russia’s finest artists – where he also leads student programs at the State Hermitage Museum.

Igor’s teaching takes him across the world. He has led workshops and masterclasses at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy and the Dutch Atelier of Realist Art in Haarlem, Netherlands, working with serious students of painting from Europe, Russia, and the United States. This summer, he completed a program at the Hermitage Museum with 22 students before bringing his work to South Florida.

He is the co-author of Drawing Drapery, an academic instructional book on the history and classical technique of depicting textiles — a staple subject in the European painting tradition.

Igor teaches in English, Russian, and Italian, and his classes are designed to give students of all levels a genuine experience of how the great painters of Europe actually worked — not a simplified version of it, but the real thing, adapted to where you are right now as an artist.